1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
An ink-jet printer is well known as a kind of a liquid ejecting apparatus. An ink-jet printer ejects ink (liquid) supplied to a recording head (liquid ejecting head) through nozzles, which are formed in the recording head, onto a recording target medium such as paper, thereby printing an image thereon. Some of ink-jet printers are equipped with a heating means that applies heat to ink ejected for printing onto a recording target medium during the transportation of the recording target medium so as to dry it (for example, refer to JP-A-2004-276437). Another known ink-jet printer is equipped with a drying means that blows warm air to ink ejected for printing onto a recording target medium during the transportation of the recording target medium so as to dry it (for example, refer to JP-A-2001-334647).
In the printer disclosed in JP-A-2004-276437, a heating roller that can rotate while being in contact with the image-printed surface of a recording target medium, that is, the surface on which recording operation has been performed, to transport the recording target medium is provided at a position downstream of a recording head, which is provided at an upstream position, in the direction of the transportation of the recording target medium. A plurality of heat generators is provided inside the heating roller along the direction of the shaft thereof. Control is carried out to switch active heat generators, which are used for heat generation, on the basis of the size of a recording target medium in the width direction, which is perpendicular to the transportation direction. In other words, a limited region of the heating roller, specifically, a region with which the image-printed surface of a recording target medium that is transported as a heating target is brought into contact, is actuated for heat generation. With the generation of heat at such a limited region, it is possible to dry the recording target medium during transportation efficiently. In the printer disclosed in JP-A-2001-334647, a drying means is disposed downstream of a recording head in the direction of the transportation of a recording target medium. The drying means has an opening for blowing warm air. The warm air outlet is elongated in the width direction, which is perpendicular to the transportation direction. The drying means blows warm air from the warm air outlet in an inclined direction with respect to the direction of transportation of a recording target medium. Therefore, the flowing of warm air from the drying means to the recording head is suppressed.
In the printer disclosed in JP-A-2004-276437, heat is uniformly applied to the entire surface of a recording target medium that is transported for drying it. Because of uniform heat application, the recording target medium curls up in the transportation direction when dried. For this reason, there is a risk of a transportation failure such as a paper jam.
In the printer disclosed in JP-A-2001-334647, since warm air is blown from the warm air outlet of the drying means to a recording target medium throughout the entire surface thereof in the width direction, the level of dryness of the surface of the recording target medium after the drying process is uniform. Therefore, as in the printer disclosed in JP-A-2004-276437, the recording target medium curls up in the transportation direction when dried. For this reason, there is a risk of a transportation failure such as a paper jam.